In an air conditioner which is divided into an indoor unit and an outdoor unit, the connection between the indoor unit and the outdoor unit is generally performed by means of a gas side connection line and a liquid side connection line which serve to connect the indoor unit refrigerant lines and the outdoor unit refrigerant lines, and by means of electric connection lines that serve to transmit electric signals between the indoor unit and the outdoor unit.
With this type of air conditioner, time and effort will be needed in order to perform the installation thereof, because one will need to connect each connection line to the indoor unit refrigerant lines and the outdoor unit refrigerant lines, and connect the electric connection lines. Because of this, it is desirable to improve the work efficiency of the installation. In particular, with a system for a building or the like which has a plurality of air conditioners, it is desirable to improve the work efficiency of installing the air conditioners, from the perspective of shortening the time needed for installation.
A configuration in which the gas side connection lines and the liquid side connection lines are used as the electric connection lines is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication H07-65783 as a means of solving the aforementioned problem. Specifically, by providing an electric insulation device in the connection portions between the gas side connection line and the liquid side connection line and the indoor unit refrigerant line and the outdoor unit refrigerant line, the gas side connection line and the liquid side connection line between the refrigerant lines of the indoor unit and the refrigerant lines of the outdoor unit are electrically insulated and used as electric connection lines.
However, because the conventional electric insulation device described above is either installed in the indoor unit and the outdoor unit, or is mounted on the indoor unit and the outdoor unit, it will be difficult to deal with problems such as refrigerant leakage, short-circuits, or the like in the electric insulation device when the indoor device and the outdoor device are being installed, the locations where the indoor unit and the outdoor unit can be installed are limited, and the like, and thus improvement in work efficiency during installation may not be satisfactorily realized.